


Heal Your Hurts

by Rina_san28



Series: Remade [1]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Child Link (Legend of Zelda), Families of Choice, Friendship, Gen, Growing Up, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-11
Updated: 2019-06-11
Packaged: 2020-04-24 10:30:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19171450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rina_san28/pseuds/Rina_san28
Summary: When the king of Hyrule sent emissaries, with them came a small boy.How was Mipha to know he would be her best friend?





	Heal Your Hurts

**Author's Note:**

> More! Hallelujah! I have come to realize that my introductory notes are going to look very odd when this series is complete, as I wrote the entire thing out of order. Ah well, that's just how things go. 
> 
> This begins place thirteen to fourteen years before the rise of Calamity Ganon. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Mipha sat quietly at the base of the fountain, watching the children play around her. A small group of Hylians and their families had arrived in the Domain just a few days prior, emissaries from King Rhoam to discuss the issue of the Divine Beasts, two of which had been discovered in other corners of the realm. Negotiations, her father said, would likely take a while; Zora and Hylians were not as close as the other races of Hyrule.

 

They were very bright, the children. Colorful in ways that Zora weren’t, growing faster than her and her peers every would. Two-year-old Hylians were already mobile and able to converse, whereas her beloved baby brother was only just reaching that point at eight. Hylians in general were also very small. While she was unusually tiny for a Zora, fully-grown Hylian women were even tinier.

 

“Excuse me, Princess?”

 

She blinked, mildly embarrassed by her lack of attention, and turned to the young woman next to her. “Yes, I’m sorry! Can I help you?”

 

The woman gently guided a small child out from behind her skirts. “My son scraped his elbow rather badly, and one of the other Zora said you had healing magic. If it isn’t too much trouble, would you mind…?”

 

“Of course I can, it isn’t a bother at all!” Mipha reassured her. She knelt down in front of the boy, catching his bright blue eyes. “What is your name?”

 

“…Link,” he said. “I’m four.”

 

Her heart melted the smallest bit. “That is a very good age,” she said. Looking closer, she notices small bruises covering his arms. “I would like to fix your hurts, little one. Is that alright?” Link nodded, and she smiled. “Wonderful! This may tickle.” Taking his tiny hand in hers, she summoned her healing magic and set to work, gently and carefully cleaning, sealing, and removing all traces of the child’s injuries. None were serious, so it didn’t take long, and when she was finished, she found Link looking at her in awe. “Now that wasn’t so bad, was it?”

 

“Nu-uh!” he giggled.

 

“What do you say, Link?” his mother asked, running a hand through his wild hair.

 

“Thank you!”

 

“It was my pleasure!” Mipha said, charmed by the boy’s toothy grin. “If you need help ever again, please let me know.”

 

\-----

 

Mipha saw a great deal of Link in the weeks following. His father, as it turned out, was a prominent and trusted member of King Rhoam’s own guard, and his only son was an accomplished swordsman in his own right, even at only four years old. Link came to her frequently with new bumps and bruises, and while she was concerned about his safety, she, along with his mother, was more concerned with his recklessness.

 

“There is a reason your father told you to duck,” his mother lectured one day as Mipha healed away a lump on his forehead. “We are both very proud of you, but you must be careful!”

 

“I know,” Link said, pouting, “but I wanna be a knight like Papa!”

 

“I’m sure that one day you will be the greatest of knights,” Mipha reassured him, “but a knight must know when to fight and when to rest.”

 

“Do you fight?” Link asked.

 

“I do.” Mipha pointed at the trident leaned against the wall next to her. “All members of the royal family are trained to fight. As my father’s heir, I must be able to protect myself.”

 

“You’re really cool, Princess!” Link said, stars in his eyes. “Can we be friends forever?”

 

“Of course we can, Link!” she said. “We may not see each other often, but know that should you need me, I will always be there for you. Do you understand?”

 

With as much solemnity as he could, Link nodded. “Yes, Princess.”

 

“You may call me Mipha,” she said, tapping him on the nose. “Best friends use each other’s names.”

 

“Yes, Mipha!”

 

When she looked up, his mother was weeping.

 

\-----

 

Link followed her around for the rest of the two months the Hylians were there, and she taught him all she could while doing her best to impress caution on him. She introduced him to her father, who was impressed by his skills, and to her baby brother, Sidon, who was thrilled to meet someone his size. Their time together soon ended, however, as all good things do.

 

“I’m gonna miss you,” Link sniffed, burying his face into her shoulder.

 

Mipha rocked him, chirping soothingly. “We will see each other again,” she said. “I just know it.” She pulled back to look him in the eyes. “After all,” she said, “who else is going to heal your hurts when you do not listen to your parents?”

 

“I’ll learn how to write and I’ll write to you!” Link said. He patted her cheeks, and she realized that she was crying as well. “We can fight together someday!”

 

“Yes, my dear knight, we will.” Mipha stood, lifting the boy with her, and handed him back to his father. “I look forward to your letters!”

 

“Bye-bye, Mipha!”

 

“Goodbye, Link!” Mipha called, and she watched the road long after they had disappeared around its bend.

 

\-----

 

The first letter arrived a month later, written in scribbles with much more adult writing on the back, translating it for her. As months turned to years, the scribbles became words, the sentences became paragraphs, and the single page turned into a thick packet. The most worrying change, however, was the slow death of the joy he had for life.  

 

The last letter arrived just shy of Link’s fifteenth birthday. It was one page, more of a note than a true letter, written on official parchment of the crown. Her beloved little boy, so reckless and brave, had found the sword of legend, and with it had ended his childhood.

 

Link himself arrived at the Domain the next week. He was taller than her, now, she noticed. Rare were his words, and rarer still were his smiles. In the quiet moments they stole together that evening, he told her in a voice rough from disuse that his mother was gone and his father would likely be soon, and if the offers she had made in her letters were still open, he would like to be her family, with her and her brother and her father.

 

Her father began to refit family armor, the armor for a son, the very next morning.

**Author's Note:**

>  **Writing Notes:**   
> 1) This entire fic, unlike the other Champion prequels, was based entirely on an entry from Mipha's diary, where she records her first meeting with Link when he was four years old. This just so happens to vibe well with Mipha's sequel I wrote nearly a year ago, in which Mipha is playing with Link's four-year-old daughter, Elliana.   
> 2) Zora are shown to age much slower than Hylians. While we do know that Sidon was around at this point, we also know that he was still very, very young when Zelda met him during the Champion's Ballad cutscene, thirteen years after the events of this fic. Aren't timelines great?   
> 3) I doubt Link's parents would be tossing their kid at challenges at age four, and based on Mipha's description of him as a child and his general personality as a teen/young adult, most of his bouts seem more due to recklessness.   
> 4) _"We can fight together someday!"_ \- In my own experience, declarations from the mouths of children carry a weight to them. Listen well.   
> 5) As a brief reminder, Link drew the Master Sword at age twelve, but his father helped him hide it and they didn't tell anyone until he was fifteen, but there was still a noticeable change in his demeanor after he found it.   
> 6) A reference was made in Re-embodiment, but not fully explored, that the armor from Mipha was made by a family member and refitted for Link specifically. This, in this verse, is a method of Zora adoption. 
> 
> We just have three fics left! We're so close! 
> 
> I'm rina-san28 on Tumblr! Come say hello!


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